Editorial: Thank you for all your support

We at the Independent are very grateful for all the donations from our readers to help keep our newspaper up and running during these hard times. January and February are always difficult financial times for all newspapers and with COVID and the internet biting into our purses, along with increased printing and mailing costs this year, things are really tight.
Jerry McKelvey wrote a letter to the editor that explained the situation and how some donations from supporters would really help. People did respond and brought in big and small checks and cash and plenty of good wishes. Some didn’t want their names known and some didn’t mind. A few stuck anonymous envelopes of cash through the mail drop. Some carried the checks in and handed them to us in person with heartfelt best wishes.
They all pretty much said the same thing: “Don’t stop publishing. We wouldn’t know what’s going on without you. We can’t let our local governments operate without someone there to watch them. Please don’t stop publishing.”
We’ve been able to pay our bills because of your help. We’ve raised our price on obituaries and advertising and subscriptions and hope our customers will stay with us and we can stand on our own feet. This is our 28th year.
Over the past few difficult years, more than 2,000 newspapers have closed across the U.S. We don’t want to join that group. We want to keep you informed. Thank you for joining in to keep us publishing.